From: "Conlon, Ryan" <r.conlon-AT-lancaster.ac.uk> Subject: RE: social construction & realism Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 12:11:42 -0000 Dear Will Some critical realists engage with Foucault. See in particular Richard Marsden's The Nature of Capital: Marx after Foucault, London, Routledge, 1999. Essentially, he argues that Foucault can be read as a realist, and as a supplement to Marx. There was also a paper presented at the 1999 Critical Realist conference on Foucault and realism. Can't remember who it was, but think it was by a postgraduate student. Bob Jessop, a neo-Marxist state theorist, whose philosophical position is critical realist, also engages with Foucault (alongside Poulantzas), in his book State Theory: Putting the Capitalist State in its Place, Cambridge, Polity, 1990. But away from Foucault specifically, critical realists do hold onto an ontological realism but have a social constructivist view of epistemology. See Andrew Sayer (2000) Realism and Social Science, London: Sage. Sayer adopts a 'moderate constructivism', and distinguishes between 'construction' and 'construal'. Best Ryan -----Original Message----- From: Will Napier [mailto:will-AT-thinkingsuccess.com] Sent: 09 November 2002 15:45 To: foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu Subject: social construction & realism Hi this is my first post to this list - only just begun to read Foucault (so far Clinic, Madness, half of Order). Is it possible to have a social constructionist view of epistemology and yet hold to an ontological realism? Conceptually I guess it is, but does anyone? Will Napier
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